REPORTAGE
Paris Games Week is coming to an end. For five days, and until Sunday evening, video game enthusiasts were able to discover the latest news. And France was still well represented. Obviously, there is the mastodon Ubisoft, world leader in the sector with games like Assassin's Creed , Ghost Recon or The Raving Rabbids . But behind, small studios are fighting to offer quality games. Europe 1 went to meet them.
The "french touch": creativity and artistic freedom
In front of Ubisoft's huge stand, the Made in France Games corner brings together 30 small and medium-sized studios, chosen to represent French know-how at the show. There are passionate people who have developed their game alone at night and on weekends and more established companies, such as Asobo, developer of the acclaimed Plague Tale: Innocence . But by the way, what's the French game? "There is something a little specific to French games, this side 'play of author' with a way of approaching the subjects often more subtle, with an approach sometimes even more philosophical, where the violence is rarely gratuitous" , replies Jehanne Rousseau, founder of the Spiders studio.
In eleven years of existence, this Paris studio has proven itself by releasing six games, mostly role-plays, the last of which, GreedFall , takes place in 17th century Europe. Today composed of thirty people, Spiders has found the recipe for success in a highly competitive sector: rely on the creativity and originality of tricolor talents. "Creating a video game is never easy anywhere, no matter what the size of the studio, we have a lot of riches in France, including many artists and musicians who are truly unique. must succeed in exploiting it, and even if it is difficult, we must not give up, "she explains to the microphone of Europe 1.
To continue to exist, Jehanne Rousseau constantly seeks to "enhance the creative aspect of the teams". "If we take the video game too much as an industry, it's true that it can be quickly frustrating for young creators, whereas when we really value the creativity of everyone, we try to highlight their talent, show them their work in the games, they feel good and they play good games, "she says. A virtuous circle: "The more we go to complex games, interesting, graphically attractive, the more we will attract people who want to create such projects".
Live video game, difficult mission
Getting there is the dream of Matthias Crévieau. At the head, he, a studio of six people, he presents his second game at Paris Games Week: Seek the Stars . "It's a game that was born while we were working on A Song in the Void , our first PC game released in March, we put it aside and then came back, we found it fun so we accelerated development, "explains the jovial entrepreneur. Yet, not everything is easy for his studio Armogaste. "I work alongside, I finance a big part of my studio myself, with my partner," he says.
A fairly common double life among independent game creators, until success is at the rendezvous. To help them, the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Animated Image) has set up grants, on file, as for the cinema. "We tried to get them but we were not selected.That's a shame, because these aids are very interesting, but the CNC has a lot of requests," regrets Matthias Crévieau. From where a bitter report: "If we are not a big studio, if we do not work for a big publisher ( who publishes the games of the developers, ed ) or if we do not go out the rare pearl, it is very difficult to live video game ".
However, Matthias Crévieau keeps smiling. "France is not a bad country to play a game, on the contrary, it's good! Because there is a public and a culture of video game very important," he says. Proof of this is the bubbling pool of independent creators. And who knows, one of these small studios may be one day the next Ubisoft ...